Former Villa Park High golfer Alex Bungert finished a season-best 11th at the PING Cougar Classic in late-April. COURTESY OF SAINT MARY'S COLLEGE

Alex Bungert began to visualize a college golfing career while a freshman golfer at Villa Park High.

It began to take shape two years later.

"That's when I started talking to coaches, and when coaches started emailing me," he said.

Bungert, 21, lettered three years at Villa Park, and he won Century League MVP twice. The Spartans captured a CIF-SS championship in 2009, his senior season.

The Orange native logged a pair of top-10 individual finishes at the state championships (2008, '09).

"I remember playing tournaments and (college) coaches would come out and watch," said Bungert, a two-time All-Orange County honoree. "So you just feel obligated to shoot a good round to prove yourself."

Bungert played in all 13 events during his third collegiate season at St. Mary's College, and was an integral part of a Gaels squad that reached last week's NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships in Atlanta.

Q.Have the last three years flown by?

A. Oh my goodness, they've gone so fast. I feel like freshman year was a couple months ago. It's definitely been a fun journey, and I've been enjoying every moment of it. You don't realize it when you're going through it, but when you step back and look at how fast school has gone it seems like light years. I feel like I played my first tournament not too long ago, and now I'm already well into my junior year.

Q.Just how difficult is it to be a great golfer?

A. You get to know a lot of junior golfers and amateurs, and you see all these people progress. If you're not progressing along with them, you start wondering why you're playing the sport. Why keep on doing it if you're not seeing any results? It's about believing in yourself. You have to put in so much work to be good at this sport, to be a great player.

Q.What differentiates a postseason round from a regular-season round?

A. The pressure you put on yourself. This is the second nationals in school history, so you put a lot of pressure on yourself to do well, and to represent the school well. Sometimes you don't play your game and you don't think of it as another tournament. When that happens, you have to get back to thinking one hole at a time, and that there's no difference at all.

Q.How frustrating can golf be?

A. It can get extremely frustrating. It's hard because your emotions factor into how well you perform, and if you don't control your emotions, you're not going to play well. Like everyone says, golf is 90 percent mental and 10 percent everything else. That's what separates professionals from amateurs – your mindset, and how you approach each shot and how you approach each mistake.

Q.What, then, keeps you playing?

A. I love everything about it. Golf is my life. I've been playing since I was a little kid, and I love the atmosphere – going to different golf courses, seeing how different designers use the landscape. Golf is just a great social interaction. It's so fun to play with your friends, play with your parents. It gets everyone together, and can always put a smile on your face.

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